Honours of Winston Churchill

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Sir Winston Churchill received numerous honours and awards throughout his career as a statesman and author. Perhaps the highest of these was the state funeral held at St Paul's Cathedral after his body had lain in state for three days in Westminster Hall,[1] a signal honour only rarely granted to anybody but a monarch or consort. The funeral also saw the largest assemblage of statesmen in the world until the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.[citation needed]

Churchill's Honorary Citizen of the United States passport
Churchill's Honorary Citizen of the United States passport

Throughout his life, Churchill also accumulated other honours and awards. He was awarded 37 other orders and medals between 1885 and 1963. Of the orders, decorations and medals Churchill received, 20 were awarded by Great Britain, three by France, two each by Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Spain, and one each by Egypt, Libya, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States. Ten were awarded for active service as an Army officer in Cuba, India, Egypt, South Africa, Great Britain, France, and Belgium. The greater number of awards were given in recognition of his service as a minister of the British government.

A full list of his awards are contained in the book The Orders, Decorations and Medals of Sir Winston Churchill by Douglas Russell.[2]

Contents

[edit] Honorary Citizen

In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy acting under authorisation granted by an Act of Congress, proclaimed Churchill the first Honorary Citizen of the United States. Churchill was physically incapable of attending the White House ceremony, so his son and grandson accepted the award for him.[3]

[edit] Proposed Dukedom

In 1955, after retiring as Prime Minister, Churchill was offered elevation to the peerage in the rank of Duke. By custom, retiring Prime Ministers from the Commons were usually offered Earldoms, so the dukedom was a sign of special honour — not surprising, given his great prestige. Far more amazing, though, was one title that seems to have been considered, namely "Duke of London" — that capital has never been used in a peerage title and to break the unwritten tradition would have been portentous.[4]

What form his Dukedom would have in fact taken cannot be known: although Churchill initially considered the proffered Dukedom, he eventually declined it under persuasion by his son Randolph, who wished to pursue a political career. (This would have been difficult for the heir to the peerage, since, at that time, there was no procedure for disclaiming a title, and, upon inheriting it, he would immediately have lost his place in the House of Commons.)[5] Since then, only British royals have been made dukes.[6] In a bitter twist of fate, Randolph was to die only three years after his father, so the Dukedom would have had little time to impact upon his career.

[edit] Other honours

Churchill in his air commodore's uniform at the Tehran Conference
Churchill in his air commodore's uniform at the Tehran Conference

In 1939, Churchill was made an Honorary Air Commodore of 615 Squadron RAF. In March 1943, the Air Council awarded Churchill honorary wings.[7]

He was the Colonel in Chief of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars (his old regiment) and after its amalgamation, the first Colonel in Chief of the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars which he held until his death in 1965 and was known as the "Greatest Hussar of all time".

From 1941 to his death, he was the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, a ceremonial office. In 1941 Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King swore him into the Privy Council for Canada. Although this allowed him to use the honorific title "The Honourable" and the post-nominal letters "P.C." both of these were trumped by his membership in the Imperial Privy Council which allowed him the use of The Right Honourable.[8]

In 1953, he was awarded two major honours: he was invested as a Knight of the Garter (becoming Sir Winston Churchill, KG) and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".[9]

He was Chancellor of the University of Bristol as well as in 1959, Father of the House, the MP with the longest continuous service.[10]

In 1956, Churchill received the Karlspreis (known in English as the Charlemagne Award), an award by the German city of Aachen to those who most contribute to the European idea, and European peace.[11]

Churchill was also appointed a Kentucky Colonel [1][2]. (Incidentally, Queen Elizabeth II is a Nebraska Admiral.)

[edit] Objects

USS Winston S. Churchill
USS Winston S. Churchill

The Sir Winston Churchill Range in the Canadian Rockies was named in his honour.

One of four specially made sets of false teeth, designed to retain Churchill's distinctive style of speech, which Churchill wore throughout his life is now kept in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England.[12]

On March 10, 2001, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill was commissioned into the United States Navy. The launch and christening of the ship two years earlier was co-sponsored by Churchill's daughter, Lady Soames.[13]

He appears on the 1965 British crown coin, the first person other than a monarch to be placed on British money.[14]

The Churchill tank, or Infantry Tank Mk IV; was a British Second World War tank named after Churchill, who was Prime Minister at the time of its design.[15]

The Julieta (7" x 47), a size of cigar, is also commonly known as a Churchill.

[edit] Polls

Churchill has been included in numerous polls, mostly connected with greatness, a notable one of which is a BBC survey of January 2000, which saw Churchill voted the greatest British prime minister of the 20th century.

In 2002, BBC TV viewers and web site users voted him the greatest Briton of all time in a 10-part series called Great Britons, a poll attracting almost 2 million votes.[16]

[edit] Buildings and statues in his honour

A statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.
A statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.

Many statues have been created in likeness and in honour of Churchill. Numerous buildings and squares have also been named in his honour. The most prominent example of a statue of Churchill is the official statue commissioned by the government and created by Ivor Roberts-Jones which now stands in Parliament Square, erected 1976. In addition several other statues have also been made, including a bronze head of Churchill by Jacob Epstein (1946), several statues by David McFall at Woodford (1959), William McVey outside the British embassy in Washington D.C. (1966), Franta Belsky at Fulton, Missouri (1969), at least two from Oscar Nemon: one in the House of Commons (1969), another one in Nathan Phillips Square outside of Toronto City Hall, Ontario (1977), and Jean Cardot beside the Petit Palais in Paris (1998).[17] After he was declared the greatest Briton of all time in the BBC poll and television series Great Britons (see above), a statue was erected in his honour and now stands in BBC television studios.

In 1960, Churchill College, Cambridge was established as the national and Commonwealth learning institution dedicated in his honour. It includes one of the largest collections of his writings and papers - the Churchill Archives.[18]

Many schools have been named for him:

Further information: Winston Churchill High School and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School

Ten schools in Canada are named in his honour: one each in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Kingston, St. Catharines, Lethbridge, Calgary, Toronto (Scarborough) and Ottawa. Churchill Auditorium at the Technion is named after him.

At least four American high schools carry his name; these are located in Potomac, Maryland; Livonia, Michigan; Eugene, Oregon and San Antonio, Texas.

The City of Edmonton, Canada, has a public square named in his honour. Churchill Square, is the main square in that citym and was renovated in 2004 for the city's 100th anniversary of incorporation. There are several other squares named after him, one in Brighton and one in Newfoundland.

A large dock in the Port of Antwerp was named after him by Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony in 1966.

Winston Churchill Boulevard in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada is also named in his honour.

[edit] List of honours

The insignia of a knight of the Order of the Garter.
The insignia of a knight of the Order of the Garter.
collar of the Order of Leopold.
collar of the Order of Leopold.
Collar of the Order of the Elephant.
Collar of the Order of the Elephant.

[edit] Education

[edit] Military

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ Picknett, et al., p. 252.
  2. ^ The Orders, Decorations and Medals of Sir Winston Churchill - The Churchill Centre
  3. ^ Microsoft Word - 07fam1170.doc
  4. ^ Gideon Hill. The Richest Man in Horseracing (PDF). The Baker Street Journal. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
  5. ^ Statesmanship - The Churchill Centre
  6. ^ The Orders, Decorations and Medals of Sir Winston Churchill by Douglas Russell
  7. ^ The Orders, Decorations and Medals of Sir Winston Churchill by Douglas Russell
  8. ^ The Orders, Decorations and Medals of Sir Winston Churchill by Douglas Russell
  9. ^ Literature 1953
  10. ^ Winston Churchill hero file
  11. ^ Internationaler Karlspreis zu Aachen - Detail
  12. ^ http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/exhibitions/churchill/
  13. ^ http://www.churchill.navy.mil/
  14. ^ 1965 Churchill Crown
  15. ^ The Churchill Tank
  16. ^ BBC - Great Britons.
  17. ^ http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32413?docPos=3
  18. ^ Churchill College : Churchill Archives Centre
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